This invention relates to an article handling system. More specifically, it relates to an apparatus for palletizing sheets or the like.
Sheets, such as flattened boxes which have yet to be shaped into a carton configuration, are prepared for factory storage or shipment by palletizing the sheets into suitable-sized stacks. Automatic stackers used in the palletizing of cardboard sheets or the like often employ a sweep plate which sweeps across the surface of a loading table, to transfer sheets from the table to a transfer carriage.
Such sweep plates have not been entirely satisfactory in that the clearance between the plate and the loading table and transfer carriage may be greater than the thickness of the sheets being transferred, with the result that the lowermost sheet or sheets may become wedged between the sweep plate and the loading table or carriage. When this occurs, the stacking operation must be interrupted to remove and re-stack the lowermost sheets. This occurs at considerable expense in terms of manpower and machinery efficiency.
In the present invention, there is provided a layer-arranging table, the surface of which may be formed of a plurality of laterally-spaced elongate support members, and a transfer carriage, the surface of which may be formed of a plurality of laterally-spaced, elongate slats. The elongate support members define therebetween channels which are longitudinally aligned with channels defined by the slats of the transfer carriage. A sweep device for transferring articles from the layer-arranging table to the transfer carriage includes a rake having a plurality of laterally-spaced tines, the donwardly-directed ends of which are positioned to extend into the channels of the layer-arranging table and the transfer carriage. This assures that the tines engage the edges of all of the articles, regardless of the thickness of the articles, as the rake sweeps articles from the layer-arranging table to the transfer carriage.
Further provided is a stacking platform on which the article stack is formed. In transferring articles thereon, the rake is positioned vertically adjacent the stacking platform, and the transfer carriage shifted horizontally to a position overlying the layer-arranging table. Because the free ends of the rake tines extend into the channels of the transfer carriage, the tines engage the edges of all of the articles as they are wiped from the transfer carriage onto the stacking platform.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a palletizer for stacking sheets or the like, in which all of the sheets are positively engaged when the sheets are horizontally transferred to and from a transfer carriage.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a palletizer having a channelled layer-arranging table, a channelled transfer carriage, and a horizontally shiftable rake having a plurality of tines which extend into the channels of the table and carriage.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a palletizer for stacking sheets or the like which is substantially trouble-free during operation.